As we’re about to close the chapter of 2024 and look towards the dawn of a new year, we’ve been asking some of the key members of the blockchain gaming sector about their thoughts on the past year and what they expect in 2025.
Jeff Zirlin is the co-founder of Sky Mavis.
What was the most significant trend for the sector of 2024?
2024 was a year of building and foundation setting for web3 games.
- High-quality games like Forgotten Runiverse, Lumiterra, Pixel Heroes Adventures, and Fableborne introduced themselves to the world via Ronin this year. Games take a lot of time to build and these are all projects that spent years building before starting to come to market this year.
- Pixels continued to scale and hone their skills when it comes to operating a live web3 economy. Pixels became the 2nd web3 game to hit millions of users, joining Axie Infinity. Both were, of course, powered by Ronin.
- While the bear market was very much a competitive environment, in ‘24 we began to see the web3 gaming sector unify and focus on points of collaboration. Web3 gaming is still such a small sub-sector within crypto. I expect Ronin’s Opening to market as a landmark event for the industry where many games that were formerly “gate-kept” from Ronin begin to leverage Ronin’s unique distribution advantages.
How did the focus of your business change this year?
This year, we took a major step in opening up Ronin to the broader gaming ecosystem with the launch of Ronin Forge, our premier onboarding program for web3 studios. Welcoming the first seven hand-selected studios was a major moment, as it signals our commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration within web3 gaming, providing studios with the tools to find success on their own terms. As we plan to open Ronin in 2025, these initiatives pave the way for even greater integration, growth across the ecosystem, and most importantly unlocking economic freedom for all gamers.
What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2025?
Innovation when it comes to the web3 game economy is set to explode in 2025. Regulatory clarity is set to unleash more experiments when it comes to novel mechanics for distributing tokens and also ensuring these tokens have good enough in-game use and token economics.
What was your favourite blockchain game of the year?
Ronin is home to many games that are celebrated and loved by the web3 community. Pixels took home People’s Choice and Best Casual Game at the Gam3s Awards, while Fableborne won Best Mobile Game.
Beyond these, I was particularly impressed by Lumiterra and Forgotten Runiverse – I had a blast playtesting both.
Interestingly, my wife really enjoyed Ragnarok: Monster World, suggesting it has strong potential to resonate with traditional gamers.
What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?
It’s time for unity. With gaming season + Open Ronin on the horizon, we’re now entering an era where web3 gaming will be working together and winning together. My New Year’s Resolution is to ensure this happens and the web3 gaming space reaches its true potential in ’25.
Check out all the 2024 End-of-Year interviews here >>
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